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Episode 231: Cheers to Resisting Temptations of Learning Overload

Well hello there, teacher friends! Welcome to the Beyond Measure Podcast. Christina Whitlock here: Your host, voice of experience, and self-appointed Anytime Piano Teacher Friend. This is THE PLACE for studio music teachers who like to think big thoughts and find a little camaraderie in the work we do. I hope you have real-life teacher friends you can hang with, but I’m here for you in the meantime as you work to align your social calendars. 😊 And now, friends – let’s get on with the show!

This is the fourth – and final – installment in a series I’ve been running here on Beyond Measure about the things that distract us from doing our best Teacher Work. These episodes have been challenging to put into words because they ALL require a delicate balance.

We started off talking about Business and Marketing. Obviously, we *do* need to think about Business and Marketing. The intention of that episode was to point out that sometimes we avoid doing important work on our ACTUAL TEACHING because it’s EASIER to focus on those elements since they are less personal and more actionable.

Likewise, the next episode examined the distraction of what I call The Practice Problem: the fact that too many of us blame lack of practice for every student issue we encounter. Complaining about lack of practice is the EASIEST, least-personal path to take. We all know lack of practice IS a factor in slow progress; I just want to caution us not to get distracted by The Practice Problem, because it makes it challenging to see areas for our own improvement.

Last week, I tackled The Encouragement Problem. AGAIN – clearly we should be aiming to encourage our students. PLEASE DO. The distraction element comes into play when we focus more on encouraging words and less on understanding the communications our students are giving us. It’s a balance, right? Encouraging our students without dismissing their concerns?

Well, friends, I have one more distraction for you today… and it might require the biggest balance of them all. We’re talking today about what I’ll call The Temptation of Learning Overload.

Let’s start with the good part: As teachers, we OF ALL PEOPLE should be committed to lifelong learning.  There is ALWAYS more to learn about the art of teaching music … and the art of being a good human, for the record. The moment we decide we know it all is the moment we stop being effective as teachers.

I’m not shy about admitting there was a period of time in my early-mid twenties when I *did* think I knew everything there was to know about piano teaching.  I was SORELY mistaken. In reality, I knew just enough to be dangerous. Some of you are there now… but you’ll learn.

Continuing to learn more about our craft is something we should all be doing with intention.

…but let’s look at the flipside: The reason I’m naming LEARNING as a distraction today, is sometimes consuming information is easier than TAKING ACTION, which means we can easily spend more time LEARNING than putting that information into practice.

Take starting a podcast, for example. There is a lot of learning to do ahead of time and along the journey. That’s a really important step in producing anything worth listening to. However, there is SO MUCH content available in the world about starting a podcast, you could easily spend the rest of your life researching the process and never actually getting started.

Teaching is the same in many ways. It’s easy to convince yourself you need to overhaul everything about your approach to lessons. You start taking deep-dives into different methodologies and big names in the profession. You join all the memberships and buy all the materials all in hopes of being a better teacher… when the NUMBER ONE THING that makes you a better teacher is TRYING NEW THINGS in your lessons.

The trial-and-error phase is SO important, but a lot of us avoid it because it’s uncomfortable. And, it’s just HARDER. It requires much more emotional labor to try new things in your teaching.  Heck, it’s even hard to decide what to try in the first place!

Chances are – if you listen to this podcast – you are also someone who takes in a lot of information about teaching from other sources as well. Obviously, I think that’s great. I’m SO GLAD you listen to this show, and I am right there with you: podcasts, books, blogs, Facebook groups, social media accounts… I, too, take in A LOT of information about piano teaching every single day of my life.

When you really think about it, it’s kind of crazy. I’m not sure how many other professions spend daily time trying to learn how to do their work better. Is that a thing in other career fields? I don’t know…

…but it just compounds this issue, right?  We read and see and learn what other teachers are doing and it all looks so pretty and transformative.

In reality, there are things about our work that are just plain HARD. It’s easy to convince ourselves that the solution is out there somewhere… we just need to keep reading to find it. Right?

We live in a culture obsessed with optimization. We are constantly seeking ways to do things faster and better than ever before. But I keep coming back to this idea that the things we can’t seem to streamline about the lesson experience are actually what make it valuable.

Yes, there are things about learning an instrument that are challenging. For sure. But instead of searching for ways to make these things easier, what if we lean into the benefits of the challenge itself? Just like I’ve been preaching the benefits of PLAY the last few months, maybe the long-term investment of music study should be a selling point, rather than a negative. I don’t know…

Again – this is where BALANCE comes into play. I’ve long said, our job as teachers is to find confidence in the fact that we know so much… while also understanding we have so much to learn. Both things are true: We know many things, but there’s still a lot to learn.

So, yes… we have room for improvement for how we teach, say,  technique and artistry. For sure. But also, these things just take TIME to develop. Sometimes we think something is wrong with us when our students are slow to pick up on these concepts… but there’s a lot about our work that just takes time.

This past summer on the podcast, I had a conversation with Leila Viss and we mentioned her book, Found in the Wake. This is a memoir detailing her son Carter’s recovery from a horrific accident where he ultimately lost one arm and almost lost his other limbs as well. In the book, Carter mentions two words that got him through his remarkable physical recovery: Time and Repetition. Those two words: Time and Repetition became his focus as he learned to walk again and return to the piano with his new physical reality. In the book, Carter says he began to realize the key to everything he wanted to pursue was time and repetition. He could recover any skill he wanted as long as he applied time and repetition.

Maybe that seems like a strange parallel to be making here, but after reading that book, that phrase “time and repetition” has found an even more prominent place in my Teacher Vocabulary.

Isn’t it true?  Can’t most of our musical pursuits be accomplished with TIME and REPETITION?

….but do you know what is more enticing than time and repetition?  Someone else’s promise that they’ve CRACKED THE CODE and can help you teach those concepts faster and better.

Sometimes we think we’re one new teaching philosophy or method series away from FIGURING IT ALL OUT.

I say this in love, friends:  We work in a profession that was built and developed over time by BRILLIANT thinkers. Seriously. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking we are wiser now than past generations. If there was a solution to making EVERY student fall in love with the piano and to make them want to devote consistent practice time to it every day, someone would have discovered it by now. If there was a solution to getting every student to pay attention to their hand shape and seating posture at home every time, someone would have found it now.

…I could go on, but you get my point, right? There are elements of our work that are just tricky. It’s not the more-attractive option, but time and repetition are sometimes the most reliable elements we have.

You’ve heard me say it a million times: One mark of a great teacher is the ability to say the same things again and again without taking it personally.

So, yes, we have things to learn. Each of us probably CAN improve our approach to technique in some way. We probably CAN motivate our students in more-effective ways. Keep learning, friends.

But don’t let it keep you from taking action in your work. Or fooling you into thinking there is ever going to be a path to learning an instrument that is free from friction.

There’s one more problem about learning I’d like to address: sometimes we consume SO MUCH material it makes it impossible for us to take action on anything.

This is how I often feel when I’m at a National Conference. I consume SO MANY ideas, it’s pretty much impossible to know where to start when I come home. But, I’ve trained myself to keep a list of action items throughout the conference and then I come home and implement one at a time. That helps calm the overwhelm.

The trouble is – as I mentioned earlier – some of us are consuming piano-teacher content on a DAILY BASIS. There is SO MUCH Information coming into our brains, it just becomes noise. We’re not DOING anything to put the information we’re consuming to use.

Believe me – I’m guilty of this, too.

Let’s think about our inboxes. How many piano teachery things are you subscribed to? Maybe a lot? How many do you read closely? Probably not as many…. How many give you something that actually impacts your teaching? I’d guess even less…

Now, look… I LOVE my fellow piano teacher content creator friends. There are so many of us out here in the world doing cool stuff, and I think we all have our audiences. The question is: which emails are serving YOU?

I guess I’ve been thinking about this lately because I got an email from a teacher friend, Sharon, who said, “Christina!  I’ve been on your email list for awhile but I only recently started READING your emails. I truly can’t decide which is better: your Piano Teacher Confessions or your podcasts. I promise to start reading your emails the moment they arrive in my inbox. I just read ten of them in one sitting and might keep going. Please keep doing what you are doing. With gratitude, Sharon.”

Funnily enough, I’ve been in Sharon’s shoes. I tend to let piano teachery emails build up in my inbox (along with everything else). They’re not really serving me in that case, are they?  Then, every now and then, I’ll read something and think, “Woah – this is REALLY GOOD. Why didn’t I pay attention to that sooner?!”

It seems like a relatively-harmless digital clutter problem, but I think it’s bigger than that. Too much of anything – even piano teaching brilliance – leads to overwhelm and burnout.

Sometimes we go through phases where we consume consume consume, then we get tired of it and give EVERYTHING up at once. I know; I’ve been there, done that. And I’ve ended up throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I get so tired of feeling overwhelmed with good information, I clear it all out and end up missing out on things that truly DO bring me life.

I guess I just want to offer a word of caution that you want to be mindful of the amount of content you consume. How much is healthy for you? What sources of information are bringing you the most value? Could you make better use of the sources you love if you quiet the sources you just like?

I listen to a lot of podcasts, on a lot of subjects…. But there’s a hierarchy there, right? There are some shows I will listen to as soon as a new episode drops. There are others I can wait for and save for times when I just need some background noise.

This is probably bad business to be talking about this.  Like, I hope I’m not just convincing you to stop listening and reading my work. I really hope they bring you value. But if they’re just noise? Then, yeah… don’t let ME be part of the problem. I don’t want that. I don’t spend this many hours of my week creating these things so they can clutter up your brain. I’ll admit it: I WANT YOUR ATTENTION. I really try to create value in everything I do. But I don’t want to be noise.

Here’s something I’ve learned from YOU: Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with many of you one-on-one for teacher consultations. A few of you have REALLY surprised me by showing up with detailed notes on this podcast. You’ll say things like, “in episode 37 you said this… “ and “can you please clarify what you meant by this quote in episode 189?”  It BLOWS MY MIND that there are people out there who actively take notes while listening to this show.

And yet – maybe that SHOULD be our standard practice?  Many of us – myself included – listen to podcasts as a way of multi-tasking. But if I’m listening to something and find myself REALLY wanting to remember it? I do need to take notes in my phone or in an actual notebook. That’s just being a good student, right?  We can’t remember everything we hear… especially in today’s age of media overload.

It’s like that list of action items I write at conferences. What if – at the very least – you started keeping a list of things you want to try… or thoughts you want to ponder… in your phone? Or your journal? Whatever?

I don’t know. I’m probably starting to ramble here, but I think most of us have room for improvement with what we do with the information we consume.

Since time is running out for us today, let me offer a recap of today’s examination of the Temptations of Learning Overload:

• First of all, we don’t want to get stuck in the easier, more comfortable stage of consuming information to the point that it keeps us from taking ACTION in our work.
• We’ll never grow in our teaching if we’re afraid of trying new things and pushing through the discomfort of experimentation
• Time and repetition are the antithesis of Optimization Culture, but learning to embrace them is a valuable part of music study.
• We need to remember the dual truths that, yes, we know a lot of things… but at the same time, we have much to learn. Both sides of that are important to Teacher Life.
• Remember: consuming too much of anything can lead to overwhelm and burnout. Being more selective of our information sources can help us focus on material that will TRULY help us grow
• Lastly, take an active role in your learning. Taking notes is not just for university students. We would be wise to do it, too.

THERE YOU HAVE IT, friends!  The fourth and final installment of this series on the things that distract us from doing our best work.  I hope I’ve given you plenty to think about over the course of the last four episodes. We have such important work to do; let’s not get caught up in red herrings that lead us off the REAL path.

Let’s wrap up with a toast, shall we?

Studio Music Teacher Friends from all around the globe: Today we seize the moment to re-center ourselves on this mission of teaching music through instruments. May we run our businesses effectively but ALSO remain mindful that the very best way to retain students is to provide an exceptional lesson experience.  That begins with helping students feel seen and understood, and it means staying attuned to new developments in education while also finding confidence in our own experience and ideas. It’s no small feat, friends, but we can do this together.  I’m raising my glass in honor of all of us!  Hear, hear.

That’s episode 231 for you! Next week I’m coming at you with a FUN episode; it’s a fan-favorite: my quarterly reflection on What IS Working for me in this season of life. I can’t wait to share, because I have some GOOD STUFF to talk about with you.. mostly studio-related, but some reflections on life, in general. Special thanks to my SuperFriends on Patreon for their support of this show!  I’d love to see you over there, so check out the link in today’s shownotes to find out how you can score great bonuses from me AND support this work at the same time. Onward and upward, my friends!